The 2020 Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia shows beautiful minerality with dusty notes of crushed limestone or flint. This is the wine's special signature, and it shines through in a warm vintage such as this. Rancia also offers an upfront quality of red and purple fruit tones. The 2020 vintage displays pretty concentration and richness with wild cherry and plum, but ultimately the wine leaves you with that elegant mineral sendoff. Rancia will require extra bottle age.

An icon wine of Tuscany, the Fèlsina 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia (with 48,000 bottles made) is distinguished by its special aromatic fingerprint that truly brings us to a sense of place. At its heart, the wine reveals dark fruit and plum. More interesting, however, are the dusty mineral sensations that give so much texture and depth to the Rancia. These aromas can only be found in Sangiovese from the galestro and alberese-rich soils of Chianti Classico. This vintage follows up with sweet tobacco, toasted chestnut and scorched earth. Give this wine more time to flesh out and evolve in the bottle.

The 2018 is an unusual vintage that shows an especially austere character. Off the bat, it must be said that the Fèlsina 2018 Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia would certainly benefit from more cellar time and a long drinking window. The Rancia is elegant and streamlined with a medium-bodied style that breaks from some of the more concentrated vintages we've seen in the past. The bouquet reveals a lot of dark or black character with blackcurrant, tar, resin, iron ore and a dusty hint of dry graham cracker (which reminds us of the vintage heat). Structurally, the wine offers a solid and firm footing, but it would benefit from further evolution.

Rancia is always one of my favorite wines from this storied appellation (and the Castelnuovo Berardenga subzone). This vintage threw quite a few challenges at the winemaking team, but the Fèlsina 2017 Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia emerges intact, intense and beautiful. It is virtually unscathed by the heat and drought that marked this growing season. In fact, that brilliant radiance, linearity and energy of the Sangiovese grape comes through loud and clear. The bouquet is redolent of red fruit, wild berry, toasted almond, violet and potting soil. My score is a little lower (compared to past vintages) in terms of mouthfeel because I found this edition to be a bit shorter and less impactful on the finish, but not by much. It ages in barrique for up to 20 months. This vintage of Rancia saw 46,000 bottles released.

The 2016 Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia knocks it out of the park. Like the other new releases from Fèlsina, this pure expression of Sangiovese needs more time to evolve and improve with bottle age. But even at this young stage, you are made fully aware of the beautiful intensity and complexity of the quality fruit at its core. There is so much energy and tension here, further reinforced by the fresh acidity of the vintage. There are vibrant tones of wild cherry, raspberry and spice, followed up by white truffle and tilled earth.